Catholic thelogian: 'Little doubt, there were women priests'

Thomas C. Fox
|
May. 28, 2009
NCR Today

Demands to the contrary, it appears the last word on Catholic women's ordination has yet to be uttered.

Gary Macy, a professor of theology at Jesuit-run Santa Clara University, earlier this month told attendees at a lecture [1]at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee, there is little room for historical doubt that women were ordained in the Catholic Church until about the end of the 12th century.

The university’s news service described the lecture this way: “The very idea of the ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church is dismissed by many as contrary to basic church doctrine. Gary Macy, the John Nobili, S.J. Professor of Theology at Santa Clara University, says historical evidence is overwhelming that for much of the church’s history, the ordination of women was a fact.”